Lights, iPhone Camera Stand, Action!

by Megan - Monday, November 11, 2013

If you’re one of over a billion people worldwide that have an iPhone, chances are you use it for nearly everything. When Markus Oertly decided he wanted to use his for quick, on-demand filming of his stop-motion movies, he knew that iStopMotion with its companion Remote Camera app were the perfect choice for him. While he enjoyed the program, he knew the phone would benefit from a stand that would optimize the stability of the image. So Markus decided to create one.

Markus is currently working on several projects with his new iPhone stand prototype for iStopMotion. He’s gotten quite a positive reaction so far. One school that he introduced the stand to thought it was a great idea. Since then, the school has been working on developing a few more ways to get the iPhone and the iPad into the filming scene. Talk about planting the seed of knowledge and watching it grow!

On iStopMotion itself, Markus says that it’s “a cool software, and it has good user interface.” For the past eight years, he has taught students to work with iStopMotion since its very first version.

“It’s very important to know how to use stop-motion or time-lapse movies as a didactical method to learn something new,” Markus says. “Right now, we’re preparing a course for higher-education students. The problem is that they know too much! By building a stop-motion movie, they have to reduce the content as much as possible. With iStopMotion, they have the perfect tool to do this.”

Markus recently taught a course on stop-motion at “Schweizerischen SFIB-Tagung” in Bern, Switzerland using iStopMotion. He was happy to find that the students were really impressed! One person said that Markus’s panel was the highlight of the whole conference. “Later that evening, I got an email with a stop-motion clip which was built right after the panel during the rest of the conference.” He laughs, “I told them before … it’s addictive!”

In case you don't speak German, here is a cheat-sheet for Markus' iPhone stand:1. Use a sturdy/thick sheet of paper.2. Cut along the dotted lines.3. Fold along the solid lines.Check out this slideshow for further help.

Enjoy the time lapse video above of Kristiansund Harbor in Norway, which Oliver created while at the Nordic Lights Festival earlier this year!